Across the country, tens of thousands of abandoned oil and natural
gas well sit idle, known as orphan wells, they can pose a significant
danger to the environment and a nearby residents. For more on this
problem, we go to Stephanie Sai Judy Wells are considered orphaned
when their forgotten or ignored by the companies that drilled them,
often leaving a mess behind for states and taxpayers to clean up
for more. I'm joined by our communities. Correspondent Robbie Chavez,
who has
In reporting on this from Louisiana.
Robbie. It's great to see you. Let's just jump right in. What kind
of specific dangerous do these wells cars and how far will this injection
of federal funds go to help states clean them up Stephanie. The impact
is expected to be significant, especially to combat the growing danger
of these abandoned wells. We already know the danger. Orphan Wells
can leak oil, Brian and other toxic chemicals as well as emit methane,
a greenhouse gas that harms air quality and contributes to climate
change. They can also take
Water sources and lower property values. Recently. There's been good
news on the funding front.
Billions of dollars of taxpayer money is being prepped to be sent
to states to help address this problem. Um, you might remember back
in January. Under the infrastructure law that was passed, there was
$4.7 billion earmarked earmarked to combat this problem. Many states
are now hoping it will help to cap tens of thousands of wells across
the country.
And there, there are a lot of them. Where are all the wells located?
And how have states dealt with cleaning them up in the past? Well,
look, every state is different. Louisiana, for example, has its own
fund up until now. It's been funded by the oil and gas industry,
but only a fraction of the money that's needed. In fact, the Louisiana
legislative auditor said that it was no way enough money to keep
up with the pace of the growing demand of these orphan wells and
officials believe this federal
Dollars coming to Louisiana will help them double the amount of money
in this fund. As far as the rest of the nation is controlled concern.
The Environmental Defense Fund has mapped some 81,000 orphaned wells
in 28 states, and, according to that organization, nine million people
live within a mile of an orphan. Well,
And according to an e D F analysis, it may take more money it would
cost according to them about $6 billion to plug all of these wells.
Many of the states continue to look forward to this money coming
their way to help address this problem. Take a look at this graphic
that we put together here are just the top 10 states with the largest
amount of orphan Wells, Pennsylvania has more than 27,000, followed
by Ohio, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Louisiana. There
Rounds out the top 10.
I know you're on the ground reporting in communities in Louisiana.
What kind of impact have you been Hearing about
Louisiana you just saw has some 4600 Wells. The state tells me they've
only been able to cap 100 to 200 Wells per year. There are 230,000
people in the state that live within a mile of an orphan Well, including
15,000 Children under the age of five years old, as far as those
federal dollars are concerned, Louisiana's expecting to get 111.
Million dollars to try and tackle this problem. They expect that
will be able to give them a double, double the amount of wells that
they're currently capping. It's. It's a real problem, especially
for people who live near these wells. We spoke with Ricky Jordan,
who lives in Shreveport, Louisiana. Back in 2017. He uncovered an
83 year old well in his backyard right under the window, where his
daughter and granddaughters sleep. He reported it to the state they
have gone.
One out and only partially fixed that problem. The well continues
to poke out of the ground back to the federal funding. Robbie does
this mean that taxpayers are now footing the bill for a mess that
was really left by oil and gas companies. Depends who you talk to.
The environmental activists say that by sending federal dollars that
they expect the number of abandoned oil wells that number to explode
now that federal dollars are coming their way. In fact, we've seen
that already in Pennsylvania.
A number of abandoned wells has grown by 200% in an Oklahoma the
number of abandoned wells have grown by 1500%. But if you talk to
the oil in gas industry, they see this as a subsidy to help with
this problem. They think it's a good thing, and they believe it will
help put people to work one way or the other. We expect that money
to start flowing to the states by October stuff.
Thank you. Robby Chavez, PBS News HOURS. Communities correspondent
reporting from Louisiana.
Thank you Both. It is such an undercovered story, and you could read